From NY Daily News: State Assemblyman David I. Weprin on Sunday called for a change in state law that bars adoptees from seeing to their birth records.

Weprin said he is sponsoring the “Adoptees Bill of Rights” bill to give adoptees access to their birth certificate and medical records once they turn 18. Weprin said birth records are sealed and kept by the state Department of Health once someone is adopted.

“This bill would allow adoptees, when they turn 18, access to their original birth certificate,” Weprin, joined by adoptive advocates, said Sunday on the steps of City Hall. “It is time these archaic laws be amended to reflect our current reality.”

Adult adoptees must go through the courts to get their records – a costly move with no guarantee of success, adoptive advocates said.

For Full Article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/assemblyman-david-weprin-calls-change-state-give-adoptees-access-birth-records-article-1.973061

City Council Member Liz Crowley (D-Middle Village) has come under fire for co-sponsoring a bill that will cut funding for a program that turns the NYC DOC into a flock of stool pigeons for the Federal Government.

City Councilwoman Liz Crowley (D-Middle Village) has co-sponsored legislation to stop the Department of Corrections from snitching on immigrant detainees to the Feds.

Old enemies are up in arms.

The bill, Intro 656 will stop funding from the City that supports Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts to detain immigrants who have been cleared of their crimes and have no previous criminal background, according to a report in the Times Ledger.

If a person sent to Rikers is found to be an illegal immigrant, the city squeals to ICE under an agreement called the Criminal Alien Program. If you are not a criminal, they still squeal, and you will sit in a jail cell awaiting deportation. Intro 656 will cut the city’s funding for the program that has turned Rikers Island into an unorthodox Customs detention center.

These people are not a national security threat.

In a City long known to protect the immigrant community and in a heavily Democratic City Council, I doubt the theatrics of a jingoist civic prez who takes on the air of a klansperson and a few Council Members, one known to support Liz Crowley’s formal rival, Tom Ognibene will have any effect, if at all on the outcome.

As of Wednesday, Nov. 3rd, it didn’t. The Bill was approved by the Council 43:5 and now sits on the Mayors desk awaiting his signature.

Chairman of Public Safety, Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) raised an interesting point in opposition to Intro 656. He is the only opponent to use legal reasoning rather than an appeal to notions of xenophobia.

“The City Council is ignoring federal law and claiming that people illegally in this country who are arrested for a crime are somehow required to already have been convicted of yet another crime before we even cooperate with federal authorities. As a former prosecutor, I can tell you that many dangerous criminals who have recently snuck into our country have no criminal record. This policy will only succeed in making our streets more dangerous,” said Vallone in a report appearing in the Forum.

On the national level the proposed legislation appears to be in sync with White House policy and with immigration officials who said they will exercise “prosecutorial discretion.” This means authorities will evaluate charges on a case-by-case basis to concentrate enforcement efforts on criminal cases and people who have flagrantly violated immigration laws, according to a report in the New York Times.

“We need to stop needlessly and excessively deporting people who have had no prior criminal records, said Speaker Quinn. “Since our bill was introduced we’ve had productive discussions with the Bloomberg administration. We are pleased that they’ve agreed to support our legislation that will reduce unjust deportations. This is an important victory for all New Yorkers particularly our City’s immigrant community,” said Quinn.

City Council Member Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) overlooks the clean and healthy district that he has vowed to protect from malicious graffiti vandals..

QP Exclusive: How would you like to wake up to a brazen hatch-job with your name all over public property? Chair of The NYC Council Public Safety Committee Peter Vallone Jr. knows what it’s like and he’s taken it all in stride, just part of the everyday life for “The Man Who Hates Graffiti,” a nickname given to him by the NY Times.

For the past 10 years Vallone has been a staunch advocate of graffiti free neighborhoods, but sometimes the vandals strike back. Sometimes they organize themselves and mimic campaign signs. A conspiracy perhaps? Not likely. This is New York City and yes, some vandals are capable of a half assed political hatch-job.

Vallone has authored some of the toughest anti-graffiti laws in the country. Right here in NYC, the place that some consider a ‘bombing palace,’ which is slang for the best place to vandalize to become ‘infamous’ or ‘all-city’.

Graffiti culture is very strong in New York, especially Queens and the Bronx. There are some people that even glorify it and call it art. This is not true. I don’t see art in graffiti. I see vandalism and so does Vallone.

I see young people buying Sharpies and Krylon and aspiring to destroy public and private property. There’s no glory in it. But there is infamy. QP asks CM Peter Vallone what he thinks of the fake signs that were put up illegally and without his authorization.

QP Interview With CM Peter Vallone:

Peter, who did this?

“I think this just another attack by graffiti vandals and they wanted two things: to call me a hypocrite for committing acts of graffiti [Vallone referring to the act of campaigning – vandals often try to equate bombing to democracy] and they wanted my campaign to get fined

…but they were too stupid to get the sticker right.”

How did you respond?

“I reported it to the police and the Department of Sanitation. Well see where the investigation leads.

Bombing destroys property and they know it. Most people feel the way you and I do.”

How do we stop vandalism in the future?

“It’s unfortunate that a lot of these vandals get the support of big corporations that are trying to make money by using graffiti.

It sends the wrong message and ends up putting them all in jail.

There’s even a beer called ‘bomb beer’ and its marketed at the younger crowd of vandals and it’s just pathetic.

I will do my job as public safety and chair the toughest anti-graffiti laws in the country”

In an interview with Howard Koplowitz, Senator Tony Avella sits down to explain the progress he’s made since leaving City Council for his seat in the state capitol.

Avella laments that it’s still mostly “The fix my pothole problem,” but he discusses a few tough as nails state-wide issues he’s tackled including fighting for a Millionare’s Tax.

The article doesn’t mention Tony’s advocacy to ban hydro-fracking, a dangerous method of extracting energy by pumping chemicals into the depths of the Earth. My gut tells me that this bill may prove to be the most important bill for the future of the environment. Early in March 2011, Tony introduced Bill S4220-2011 which bans all future hydro-fracking in the state of New York.

Tony received a crash course in intergovernmental affairs and admittedthat as Senator he has noticed much more power to see through his agenda for the District. Of course Tony! This is a great thing for the neighborhood. Unfortunatly everyone thinks you’re still the City Council Member and they swamp your office with calls to fix street lights and potholes.

I’ve even heard some very obtuse people call you a quack for taking up hydro-fracking. “What’s this got to do with me?” They ask. Everything, I tell them. I’m glad you are looking at the bigger picture for the future of New York and what you can do for us in the Senate. Keep it up, especially with your plans for campaign finance reform.